The “ultimate Mel Brooks movie”, according to Mel Brooks: “It has lunatic class”
A Mel Brooks movie is such a distinctive thing that carries so many connotations that the man himself deliberately kept his name off the films he produced so that nobody would get the wrong idea.
While he may have been underestimating the audience’s intelligence somewhat, you can see why he did it. Whenever his name was splashed all over the marketing, viewers had been conditioned to expect scattergun jokes, big laughs, and the kind of farcical comedy that helped him define an era.
Would anyone have seen a trailer or a poster for David Cronenberg’s The Fly or David Lynch’s The Elephant Man and been under the impression that they’d be getting a light-hearted caper? You’d hope not, but he didn’t want to take the chance, so he opted to make Brooksfilms a silent partner.
In fact, his name and reputation became so ingrained with tickling ribs and splitting sides that the EGOT-winning legend admitted he didn’t even bother trying to venture outside of his wheelhouse and tackle a more dramatic, straight-laced, or serious film because he didn’t think anyone would take him seriously.
It was a decision he came to regret, but there was nobody stopping him other than himself. Brooks has always projected confidence and exuberance, but it’s telling that he wished he’d tried something completely different but didn’t, and that decision was based almost entirely on what other people would think or say.
There was a pretty big silver lining, though, since the madcap antics that became his signature on the silver screen have become fondly remembered and enduring classics. He wasn’t one for repeating himself, even if they were all broadly comedic escapades at the end of the day, but there was one of his pictures that Brooks went so far as to declare the definitive example of his on and offscreen brilliance.
When asked if he wanted to surprise his audience, he gave an example. “Sure, every time,” he said. “I gave them Blazing Saddles, a Jewish western with a Black hero, and that was a mega-hit. Then I gave them a delicate and private film, Young Frankenstein, and that was a hit. Then I made Silent Movie, which I thought was a brave and experimental departure. It turned out to be another Mel Brooks hit.”
That led him to High Anxiety, or, as he called it, “the ultimate Mel Brooks movie.” Why? “It has lunatic class.” It certainly does, with the Hitchcockian spoof being endorsed by the ‘Master of Suspense’ himself. Its writer and director doesn’t think it’s the funniest thing he’s ever made, an honour he reserves for Blazing Saddles, but he did call it the ultimate example of his schtick.
True to form during his incredible late 1960s to late 1970s run, High Anxiety was another smash hit for Brooks. His ‘big three’ will always be The Producers, Blazing Saddles, and Young Frankenstein, but the riff on Alfred Hitchcock is a deserving fourth, whether you think it’s his definitive work or not.
